Jun 9, 2024 | Farah Diba Pahlavi: Portrait of the last Empress of Iran
Born in 1938 in Tehran, Farah Diba met the Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in Paris, while she was an architecture student.
By marrying him, she became the third wife of the last shah, and the first empress in the history of Iran upon her husband's coronation. The young sovereign then became a popular international figure, notably for her charisma and her commitment to numerous social projects, which made her a driving force for modernization for the country. But she also suffers the disapproval aroused by her husband's repressive regime.
In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini took power and established an Islamic Republic. The imperial family flees. After the death of the Shah in 1980, the former empress retired to Paris where destiny continued to rage against her. In 2001, his youngest daughter, Leila, took her own life.
Ten years later, it was the turn of his youngest son, Ali-Reza. Tracing her tumultuous life, the documentary follows Farah Pahlavi in Paris, then on trips to Egypt and Venice. Archive documents, unpublished photographs and private amateur films animate this portrait.
Premiered Nov 28, 2023 | "Où êtes-vous grands écrivains, journalistes, intellectuels, politiciens, aujourd'hui, pour les prisonniers politiques en Iran ?" | Vie Privée Vie Publique | France 3 | 04/04/2007
Mireille Dumas reçoit Farah Diba Pahlavi, la dernière impératrice d'Iran qui a du fuir son pays avec Mohammad Reza Pahlavi le 16 janvier 1979 après la chute de la monarchie iranienne. Elle raconte sa rencontre avec le shah, son rôle d'impératrice auprès des Iraniens et son regard sur la situation actuelle au sein de la république islamique d'Iran.
Jan 9, 2022 | This is the turbulent life story of Farah Diba Pahlavi, who became the first and only Empress in the history of Persia. The history and culture of this country, which dates back over millennia, is as much the theme of this film as is the life of the Empress, a role model to all women in Iran.
Dec 30, 2019 | On the occasion of Her Imperial Majesty Farah Diba Pahlavi’s 80th birthday in 2018 and the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution in 2019 we are featuring an interview with the Empress in exile held at her Parisian home in 1999.
Since then she has had to mourn the loss of two of her four children with the deceased Shah who both committed suicide: her younger daughter, Princess Leila, took an overdose of pills in a London hotel suite in 2001 and her youngest son, Prince Ali Reza, shot himself in Boston in 2011.
